Saudi threat to the US

Submitted by Rebecca Moulds (United States), Jan 26, 2009 at 09:48

There is a very interesting blog called "Dunners" that has information about oil imports to the US. In May of 2006, oil imports from Canada were at 16.34%, Mexico, 15.42 %, and Saudi Arabia, 14.30%. The Energy Information Administration has newer statistics for November 2008: Canada was the largest exporter of oil to the US at 2.028 million barrels per day; Saudi Arabia comes in second at 1.461 million BPD, and the total Saudi petroleum exported to the US was 1.488 million BPD.

Seeing that Saudi Arabia is the second largest exporter to the US of oil-based products, then it makes sense that any threat from Saudi to the US administration that involves taking sides about the Israeli-Palestinian problem, should be considered a serious threat. Saudi could also threaten to cut off oil supplies to the US. Although they may not carry out those threats, it is time to re-evaluate our relationship with the Kingdom.

Do we need the oil? It seems that we do-----however perhaps it's time to take a leap of faith and stop importing Saudi oil, rely on our own country and other countries that we have friendlier relationships with, ones that don't threaten us, even if the threats seem idle. Acting as the bully it is, Saudi's threats may be empty, or not----cowering under a bully's threats only makes the bully stronger. Either we ignore them or change our strategy.

In this case, I say the thing to do is to stop importing Saudi oil; they will lose their leverage against us, as we will no longer be under their thumb. It will take a courageous government, however, to do that, and at the moment, who can judge whether President Obama has the kishkes to stand up against such threats? As long as we are beholden to Saudi oil, our voice will be muted; supporting Israel is the brave thing to do, but with that decision also comes consequences. Perhaps the Saudi threat should be taken more seriously, and we can turn it to our advantage, to make changes in our foreign policies. The support of Israel? or Saudi oil? The answer hangs in the air, and time will tell where our loyalties are.

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